


Even Punks Turn To Puppies When In Love

by hikarinanao



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, badboy!hijikata, nerd!gintoki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 23:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13153854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikarinanao/pseuds/hikarinanao
Summary: Being gay isn't such a bother to Hijikata. What bothers him, however, is the guy he just has to be attracted to.





	Even Punks Turn To Puppies When In Love

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to publish my old unfinished fics instead of letting them rot in my drive. This one was written sometime around 2015. Publishing it in its glorious unedited high school writing glory.
> 
> I'm not actively writing Gintama fics anymore, but if this gets good reception, I might come back to it someday.

Even though he's only sixteen years young, Hijikata has known for a long time about his preference to males. Sure, it's still a well-guarded secret shared only with he him and himself—not one of his gang mates know about it—but he has confirmed it with himself over and over. Whenever he and his boys illegally go to hostess clubs or stripper joints he never gets aroused in the slightest. He'd secretly go to a gay bar on his own after that. Now that's his kind of thing.

So yes, he knows, and he's sure as fuck about it. And he can accept it just fine. Girls confess to him from time to time but he always rejects, and if anyone asks why he'll just answer that he's really not interested in romance or go with the sweet boy approach by saying "my gang is important to me and I can't involve you with it." Simple as that. As for stripper sessions with his dudes, he'll just think of a nice fat cock in his ass and he'll get it up real quick with no problem at all.

Being gay isn't such a bother to Hijikata. What bothers him, however, is the guy he just has to be attracted to.

"Oi, there he is!"

The two newbies he is with walks off to a certain person sitting on the school yard's bench. Hijikata's eyes catch on a glimpse of white hair between their hips and he sighs.

Sakata Gintoki, the resident nerd. All vests and glasses, this is the guy he has a little dumb crush on.

It happened around a week ago. Hijikata goes to work out once in two weeks at the closest gym. It's a routine he would like to keep if possible. One day he was over for a game night at Kondo's and it started raining dogs and cats. The rain didn't let up even after train hours so he ended up staying over. The next day is coincidentally gym day and hey, going to the gym with Kondo didn't seem too bad, so he went to a gym near Kondo's place.

That's when he saw Sakata Gintoki, wearing only a loose tank, vigorously beating up the punching bag. That's also when he learned that beneath the sweater is a firm and toned muscular body.

That was also when the blushing started.

Hijikata still doesn't know why the bastard was there, why he has that kind of body, why Hijikata himself was blushing, why his pants felt a little tighter—everything is just so confusing. And Gintoki is strong, real strong. Strong enough to probably leave a bruise on Hijikata. Each of his punches swung the punching bag several inches away. Hijikata doesn't box but he does know a thing or two about boxing and Gintoki's technique was also spot-on. All in all he didn't look inexperienced.

And Gintoki without those ancient-looking glasses, especially when his hair is wet from sweat, looks very... never mind.

So! That's the thing. Now Hijikata despises the nerd even more than before. Every time he sees Gintoki he gets these really weird flashbacks to the muscles underneath that sweater contracting and relaxing as he lands powerful hits to the punching bag (which is very unnecessary thank you very much).

The object of his hatred hugs his Jump tighter. "Won't you ever stop crowding around me?"

"If you would just stop being so fucking annoying, we probably will."

"Well good luck, because I'm definitely not going to do that soon." Gintoki retorts with a smirk. He turns to ignore them and walk away—of course his attempt doesn't end up successful, this happens all the time and he just doesn't learn. One of Hijikata's new gang mates shoves him back against the wall. Gintoki takes the hit silently. With a scowl, but silent.

Something is odd. It might be two on one, but after what he saw last week Hijikata knows Gintoki has enough strength to get out of there. Punks or gang people they might be, but when it comes to real brawling they only know how to hit hard. If Gintoki knows boxing techniques, most likely he could maneuver out of the situation.

"Boys, come on." Hijikata pulls them both away from Gintoki. "Class is starting."

"Eh?"

"Fukuchou—"

"Be whatever you want but I want you to get your ass to class. This has been an order."

The two boys look at each other before following him back into the building, but not without throwing Gintoki some last minute insults. When Hijikata looks back to give the nerd the baddest glare he can manage, Gintoki is looking at him funny. Hijikata tries to shake the sight off from his mind.

"Seriously, what the fuck is that bastard?" One of them says once they're in the hallway. "Everyone else looks at us in fear except him. Pisses me off so bad."

Yeah, and no guy has ever made my heart race like this except him. Pisses me off a thousand times worse.

"Fukuchou, do we really have to go to class?"

"Obviously, idiots." Hijikata smacks them both in the head. "Your classes also got math quizzes today, right? You both have never scored a double digit on that. Go pass that shit then come back to me. Real badasses graduate, butt out of my team if you don't like it."

When the two look away in annoyance, Hijikata gives them another nice and loud smack.

"'sides, you don't wanna give that freaky ass nerd another reason to look down on you, do you? I sure don't."

The rest of the way down the hall is quiet and Hijikata safely drops them both in their respective classes. In the five minutes left of break, he groups up with the team mates in his class and cram some math as the quiz is right after break. None of them is too fond of studying but hey, at least they try to pass. It's the only thing that gets the gang out of trouble with the teachers.

When the test arrives, Hijikata skims the question sheet and is halfway confident he'll pass. What he crammed earlier is there.

He keeps getting these weird thoughts, though, like how 7 looks kinda like a muscly arm if you look at it the right way, also 8 looks a lot like glasses and you know who has a muscly arm and wears glasses? Sakata Gintoki, which happens to sit right there in the back corner of the class. The anime protagonist seat, very fitting for a hopeless otaku.

Hijikata tries to resist but loses to his psyche. Slowly he cranes his neck around to take a glimpse, just a glimpse—

There he is, there he is. Working intently on the thing. In the class, he's second only to Sougo in math which is already quite an achievement since Sougo is a grade-skipper.

He slams his forehead to the desk, attracting the attention of the teacher and several of his classmates but he doesn't notice because his eyes are closed shut. Sakata Geektoki is the last thing he wants in his mind right now, but trying to push him out is like digging his own grave. The more he tries to not think about Gintoki, the more he is aware that he is thinking about him. The flashbacks rush into his mind all at once, about how the punching bag didn't even have time to go back to its starting upright position before Gintoki lands another powerful punch on it. About how his sweat-soaked curly white hair droops slightly from the weight, the edges of it clinging to his forehead and neck in sharp locks. About how those piercing red eyes, a shade darker than usual, looked straight on their target with fiery focus.

Why does he have white hair and red eyes anyway? Gintoki has defended those traits before, saying they're natural, but no one's gonna buy that nonsense. Hijikata's sure it's just aesthetics. He looks like an actual anime protagonist—or a demon from some bakumatsu period game. So stupid. So damn attractive.

Not! Not attractive. Nope.

"Five minutes."

_Holy fucking shit what! How did that happen!?_

Hijikata snapped out of his rail of thought and turns back to his test. He needs to get his act together and do this fucking test, or he'll be in a serious trouble—

The bell rings.

_No!_

Everyone's passing their papers to the front already. Hijikata finally manages to solve a problem amidst the chaos but his panic grows when he sees it's only the second question.

"Hijikata-san, Hijikata-san." Sougo pokes his neck with paper. "Stop writing poems on math test and pass my sheet."

"Shut up!" Sougo isn't wrong though, it might not be poetry but Hijikata really is just scribbling nonsense on his sheet. "Shut up, shut up!"

A shadow suddenly covers his sheet. Hijikata grudgingly looks up to find his teacher's annoyed eyes.

"Hijikata." Matsudaira-sensei glowers. "I'm glad you're trying your best in the test. But time's up, you know? So you better get that pencil out of those filthy hands and pass the papers."

"Ah. I-is that so."

Obediently, he puts down his pencil and passes the papers to the front with trembling hands. Hijikata isn't the kind of guy to go against teachers, especially if it's Matsudaira. Not letting a word or a sob escape his lips, he watches as his not-even-halfway-filled test gets passed to the teacher's desk. Everyone else has all the answers filled out. His mostly empty paper sticks out like a sore thumb in the bunch. Matsudaira eyes the paper for a moment but he doesn't say anything.

All the other students start to file out of the room. Hijikata stays with his head glued to his table before Matsudaira kicks him out of the room. Literally.

* * *

Everyone's drunk. Kondo's sputtering drunken whines about his unrequited love for Tae. Sougo is in a corner spanking his underlings. Yamazaki is playing indoor badminton against the wall.

Hijikata really wants to get as idiotically drunk as they are, but somehow he just knows things will get bad if he does. No telling what he might do if he's completely drunk, given that he is extremely pissed right now. Not only did he do almost otherworldly awful on his math test (which will definitely get him into trouble, after all this time of staying clean), there's that thing—the thing about wanting to snog a certain otaku with natural perm. Things could get dangerous if he loses control of himself.

"Toshi!" Kondou approaches him from where he was sitting with the poor kids who had to listen to his whines. "Yer not drinkin'? It's our anniversary, drink up!"

"N-no, Kondo-san, I'll refrain on the drinks, I'll watch everyone else."

Kondou doesn't reply, just stares at him. Then he hugs Hijikata to his chest and ruffles his hair.

"Gooood boooooy." He hiccups. "Good boy."

Kondou then gets up and goes back to his crowd of listeners, leaving Hijikata with an awkward blush.

"Fukuchou! We're playing strip poker, wanna join us?"

"You're playing strip poker in a public bar? Are you dumb!? Put your cards away!"

They follow his orders with a scowl. Hijikata goes back to sucking his mayo.

A few minutes later Kondo, whose face is three shades redder than usual, gets up on the table and yells: "Alright! Next up is the stripper joint!"

The crew answers with a loud roar. Hijikata, on the contrary, is struck with horror. To make a convincing case of actually getting aroused in that place he needs to get so drunk he can't see straight. That's not an option for him right now.

So as everyone walks to the next place, Hijikata whispers some lame excuse to Kondou, wait until Kondou nods, and quietly sneaks away to his own comfort. Even so, Hijikata doesn't feel like going home tonight. He really just wants to get drunk dammit, but is there a safe enough place for him to go drunk? If he goes to a random bar, no doubt some lonely wife will hit on him and annoy him to no end. (Good looks aren't always a blessing.)

Nowhere in particular to go, his feet carry him to his usual area with the gay bars. Now that here's here he could go to a gay bar, but with no one to watch him there's no guarantee he won't wreck the place. Maybe he can try to get laid, but really the only person he wants to get laid by is—

"Onii-san!" A lanky guy with the thinnest legs Hijikata has ever seen approaches him. His hair is a mussed chestnut cut just like the boybands you see on TV. "You look like you need company. Wanna visit our Club Takamagahara? We aren't located nearby, but we have a collection of hosts who are willing to serve men."

Hijikata is given a colorful pamphlet with pictures of beautiful men. Truthfully, it takes him aback a little bit. Hijikata had no intention of ever visiting the club at the start because host club men are usually caked with disgusting make-up, but Takamagahara's men look pretty nice. The guy promoting the club also turns out to be one of the hosts in the pamphlet. From what Hijikata can see, he doesn't look so bad.

It's not a bad idea, if he thinks about it. The photo of the place looks nice. Not to mention he won't drink alone in there.

Without even realizing it, he finds himself treading back outside the gay area and to the club's address in the pamphlet. He goes inside the elevator with some excited young women. On the ride up the elevator he suddenly feels like going back down again, but what's done is done. It's just a bit of a taste test. If he feels uncomfortable, he can refrain from going back here again. For now he just wants to get drunk with a nice company.

The door opens and a collection of hosts greet the girls with a huge "Welcome!" Whereas he himself is greeted with a quiet but sincere nod. They are respecting their male customers' privacy, maybe. The women in front of him seem like regulars—they pick their usual hosts right away. Then it's Hijikata's turn at the receptionist.

"Good evening, sir." The handsome receptionist—Hijikata recalls seeing his face on the pamphlet also—greets. "May I check your ID please?"

Hijikata hands him his fake ID for alcohol and clubs. He bates his breath a little—he knows it won't work 100% of the time and there might be a chance it fails to work here.

The host checks it, nods, and returns it. Hijikata silently lets out a sigh of relief. "Are you a returning customer or is it your first time here?"

"Uh, it's my first time." Hijikata replies.

"Okay," the host says with a soft smile. "A host will guide you to a table and he will give you further instructions. Please enjoy our service."

Whereas the women were led to the hallway to his left, Hijikata is led by a host past the batwing doors on the right. The room is only filled with men being serviced by the hosts. Dividing the two sections apart is the bar, managed by a lone bartender who has his back to him.

He is led to a table and then instructed to wait. A moment later hosts crowd his table one by one, each handing their own name cards before sitting around him. Kazuya, a husky-voiced guy who is shorter but looks a bit older than the rest. Tomokazu, one with a somewhat adorable mole under his rarely curving up lips (he looks really cute during those rare moments.) Ken'ichi, who has possibly the best hair out of everyone he's seen save for the guy promoting in the gay sector. Daisuke, the only one wearing glasses, very neat and proper.

They start hitting up a basic conversation. All of them are very good at what they're doing. They don't make Hijikata feel uncomfortable. After a quick chat Hijikata is offered a drink. He requests some sweet cocktail to start, because he's definitely not thinking of someone. Kazuya fetches his request to the bar.

"Mm," he says after a sip. "It's really good."

"That's to be expected," replies Kazuya. "It's out best bartender's creation. Sweets have always been Gin-san's field of expertise."

Hijikata, who was enjoying his drink contently, nearly spits it all out. Daisuke swiftly hands him a napkin. "Gin-san?"

"Yeah, that guy over there." Tomokazu points to the bar.

Hijikata doesn't want to believe his eyes. It's him. Sakata Gintoki, playing with the shaker in his hands.

It's him, it's the real thing.

He's in a fine bartender's outfit and his messy curly hair is tied back to a ponytail. Which makes him, like, 27% more attractive.

"He works as a host sometimes," Ken'ichi chips in. "When he feels like it."

"Feels like it?"

"Yeah." Kazuya says. "He's the youngest out of all of us. A college student working part time as a bartender and occasionally, host. At least, that's his setting. He's good friends with the owner Kyoshirou-san, so it's not a surprise he's allowed to work that way."

"He makes the meanest cocktails though, right?" Tomokazu asks to no one in particular. Everyone nods or hums in agreement. Hijikata's eyes shift back to the bartender. The vest hugs Gintoki's body and really shows off his lean figure.

Suddenly really pissed off for some reason he definitely has no idea about, he quickly chugs down his drink. "Daisuke-san?"

"Yes?"

"Get me something strong, please?"

Daisuke looks taken aback by his request at first, but then he stands up. "At your request."

Hijikata converses with the other hosts as he waits. Purposefully, he talks most to Tomokazu who he can look at without getting the bar into his vision.

Daisuke returns later with a bright yellow drink. "I have two messages from our bartender," he says. "First, this drink may not be as strong as you want it to be. This is entirely the bartender's decision; please do not blame the host. Enjoy it to your heart's content. Second, and I quote this word by word: don't be shy, Oogushi-kun, you can look at me as much as you want. Love, Gin."


End file.
